Kedarnath Bhattacharya professionally known as Kumar Sanu (Born 20 October 1957) is the Indian playback singer who primarily works in Indian cinema.

Sanu’s father Pashupati Bhattacharya was a vocalist, and composer that influenced him to be indulged with music since childhood. Kumar has sung in various regional languages of India and hold ‘Guinness World Record’ of recording 28 tracks in a day since 1993.

In 1983, the singer started his career with the stage name Sanu Bhattacharya, and with the influence of his idol’s name Kishore Kumar, they changed it later to Kumar Sanu. His first track in a Bangladeshi movie Teen Kanya, In 1988, he gets his first breakthrough in Bollywood movie Hero Hiralal’s song entitled “Jashn Mohabbat Ka”

In 1989, Ghazal master Jagjit Singh met him and introduced him to famed Hindi cinema music director’s duo Kalyanji-Anandji, who provided him the opportunity to sing in the Hindi movie Jaadugar, which helped him gain popularity in the country and led to numerous opportunities to work with other producers, eventually becoming a renowned ballad voice in Bollywood.

In 1995, they have set a record streak (1990-1995) of winning five consecutive Filmfare awards for Best Playback Singer., In 2001, the Mayor of Ohio, Michael R. Turner announced a day of his name, Kumar Sanu Day, which celebrated on 31st March, makes him the first Indian singer to achieve this sobriquet, Sanu mentioned on his Instagram:

I feel so humbled to receive this honor in 2001. Thank you, Mayor Michael R. Turner, and the city of Dayton, Ohio, U.S.A., for declaring March 31st as Kumar Sanu Day. Grateful for the love and support from my fans across the globe. 🙏🎶

Kumar Sanu appeared in various singing reality shows as a judge and main guest, Waar Parriwar, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, & Super Singer). He also made special appearances as an actor in the movies Sapne Sajan Ke, Hum Aapke Dil Mein Rehte Hain and Dum Laga Ke Haisha.

They did take a break from the career and made come back in 2012 after convincing by Bollywood duo’s music directors Sajid-Wajid to sing in a movie Rowdy’s Rathore’s song “Chamak Challo Chel Chabeli” and later continuing working in industry.

Sanu has received too many accolades for their remarkable work in the Indian music industry, such as Padma Shri (India’s 4th highest civilian honour), Dr Ambedkar Awards & in 2023 Indian Government bestowed him Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar National Contribution Award.

Kumar has five children’s, one daughter, Shannon K is a singer, and younger Annabelle Kumar Sanu is the writer & author, in a recent interview they talked their experiences about daughters:

Initially, I did not want to sing the song because a portion of the song was in English, I was afraid of my daughter’s accent, my younger daughter Anabelle is a song writer, and she insisted that I sing this song now I’m glad that I did it.

In his music career, with recording over 18,000 songs, the singer renowned as a most successful artist in Indian music industry with an undefeated bequest with alias ‘King of Melody,’ in an interview they mentioned about their musical journey:

I didn’t dream of becoming a singer. I was a tabla player and a good painter. However, circumstances changed my decision.
I was around 16 years old when I started doing stage shows in Kolkata. My desire to become a singer grew, and I began singing in hotels there. When I came to Mumbai, I sang in hotels and saved money to make a demo cassette that I’d play for music directors. Jagjit Singhji discovered me and introduced me to Kalyanji-Anandji. I would do covers of Kishore Kumar’s songs. Later, for Jaadugar, they made Amitabh Bachchan listen to my songs, and he agreed to have me as the playback singer.